Thursday, 10 April 2014

# 392 Crafty makes

It wasn't my intention to be away from the blog so much but my volunteer work sort of got in the way.

When I became a volunteer at the library I thought I'd only be doing a couple of hours a week but a year on and I find myself doing a lot more than that and that's why I've not been blogging as often as before. I do miss blogging but I also enjoy my work as a volunteer so I think I need to strike the right balance between the 2.

Last month, for instance, another volunteer and I went to a craft fair every single weekend, sometimes on a Saturday other times on a Sunday. That involved a lot of stock taking, a lot of packing things away and setting up and also a lot of stock replenishing during the week. It's been fun but also a steep learning curve as no 2 fairs are the same. At some events we just about broke even while at others we managed to make a decent profit. The other interesting thing is our best sellers keep changing from one event to the next. At our last craft fair we sold a lot of brooches, knitted Easter ducklings and pompom chickens among other items but at the previous one our best sellers were the felt needlecases!

We only have one or two craft fairs from now until June when we start doing the rounds again and attending much bigger events, meanwhile we're trying to increase our stock of handmade goodies to take with us. Below is a small sample of what I've been making, you can see more on my Flickr if you like.

Needlecases

Pincushions

Any tips on your experience as a seller or buyer at craft fairs would be very welcome.